Holiday Hazards

Well, my honey is over there on her bed in the Holiday Inn Express in Warrenton, MO., blogging away, so I thought I'd give it a try too. We delayed our trip to Missouri to see my sister and mother (mother is in hospice care now) so that we didn't have to travel on ice-covered roads. The forecast said Monday would be clear of precipitation and Tuesday would be warm enough for just rain, but we hadn't anticipated the possibility that the forecast would be off by a few degrees AND that the ground, which had gotten very cold with sub-freezing temperatures a day or so earlier, was still cold enough to make the rain turn to ice on the ground.

We took our time setting off this morning and perhaps that was a good thing. Patches of ice a few miles ahead of us caused as 12-car pile-up and one fatality. If we had not picked up some of that wonderful Ed's White Front BBQ sauce from Ed before heading west on I-70, we might very well have been involved in that accident, so we are grateful while experiencing the frustration of more delay in making it to Kansas City for Christmas. But our frustration is nothing compared to the loss one family is experiencing tonight, and the shock, injury, damage, and property loss others are experiencing--some of them also stranded in this hotel tonight.

Tomorrow is not an ideal weather day, either, so we'll do what we can to be as safe as possible on this trip. Not a pleasant prospect, but I think the salting and the weather in general will cooperate at least most of the way to Kasnas City, if not all the way. Whether we can make it up the hill to Blue River Care Center, though, is a serious question.